Truths of Youths
Despite my love of double negatives – that is, my love of spotting them, not of using them – I’d somehow never noticed that Mick Jagger is actually full up on satisfaction; overloaded with the stuff, apparently.
If only he could have a moment of non-satisfaction against which he could compare his constant contentment, maybe his life would feel fuller for having the contrast.
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8]
Of course, this is just one of those things that I became familiar with at such an early age that I never thought to question it – much like the wooden nature of George Washington’s teeth.
A forensic anthropologist from the University of Pittsburgh came to the dental museum, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, to supervise laser scans on one of the four known sets of Washington’s dentures. The dentures are made from gold, ivory, lead, human and animal teeth (horse and donkey teeth were common components).
– MSNBC
Uhmm… in spite of the lyrics on this video, my impression is that he actually says “can get no”. To begin with, the British pronounce “can’t” differently from Americans, the sound they use in “can” is similar, but they pronounce “can’t” with an “a” sound similar to what americans have as the initial vowel in “arm”. That would be no proof, however, as it was fashionable for British bands back then to sing imitating (badly) the American pronunciation. Still, if you listen close to the “t” sound in “get” (very bright and conspicuous) and compare that word the allegedly “can’t” sound, you will hear no corresponding phoneme. Again, I’m fully aware of this double negative thing (and much worse) that seems to be hip in songs’ lyrics, but I really don’t hear it here. It’s probably just my ears, anyway 😉
After all, in Italian saying something like “there wasn’t nobody” is grammaticaly correct and standard :-/
Teeth made of wood sounds ike a great idea, however, let me get my tools and get to work ;-P
You know, you have a great point there, I hadn’t realized how minimally noticeable the ‘T’ is in “can’t” – that said though, unfortunately, the original 45 says it more plainly:
That’s interesting about Italian, I hadn’t realized. A lot of my French Canadian friends use exciting phrases like “There she was: gone!”
Let me know how your woodworking project goes, but watch out for splinters!
I should have surrendered to the evidence, but being notoriusly stubborn, I looked for this video (British singer) and made a comparison. As a matter of fact, it sounds like the “t” sound becomes more a brief pause than a consonant. After hearing this, I listened to the Stones again and there it is, the same pause.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_C4ipx20RA&feature=fvwrel
I was still wondering, however, if it might be some British mispronunciation occuring while imitating the American pronunciation, so I just studied myself while saying several combination of words. I made some interesting discoveries: the “t” sound is fairly to very clear when it precedes labials (M, B, P, V, F), it obviously turns into some indefinable sound when followed by “d”, etc, and yes, it does turn into a sort of pause when followed by “g” as in “get” (especially in rapid speech or when uttered by a “lazy” speaker) due to the position of the tongue and muscles required to generate its sound. The masking effect of the music does the rest. Since this is a totally automatic, mechanical consequence, I missed it completely during my studies on American phonetics, so thanks a lot for bringing this up, even if it wasn’t your post’s goal it was very useful and interesting 😉
Uhmmm… splinters, true, I didn’t think of that 🙁 Too bad, I thought I had finally found a way to save money 🙁
You can definitely tell your a musician based on this experimentation – forget “lazy” speakers, your analysis makes me feel like a lazy listener!
I’m glad you got something out of the post, even if it wasn’t the intended consequence. I’ve certainly found myself listening more carefully to the way lyrics are presented in songs. Actually, it’s already getting me riled up about people mutating words so they better fit the music, but that’s a topic for another day.
Maybe you could just varnish the dentures really well?
Varnishing the dentures? Uhmmm, that’s a nice idea, I’ll let you know how it goes ;-P
You’re no lazy listener, it’s just that I – as a foreigner studying this language – had to analyze everything in order to find the logic behind every little thing :-/ Pretty hard, but fascinating 🙂